1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an auger type ice making machine, and more particularly to an improvement of an ice breaker for breaking the rods of ice emerging from extruding passages of an extrusion head.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In a conventional auger type ice making machine, an ice breaker mounted on the top of the rotating auger has a plurality of breaker blades for breaking off the rods of ice emerging from extruding passages of the extrusion head into pieces of relatively hard flake ice. Since the pitch of the breaker blades in a circumferential direction is constant in general, replacement of the ice breaker is required for change of the size and quality of the flake ice pieces.
In Japanese Utility Model Early Publication No. 62-17768, there has been proposed an improved ice breaker which can be selectively positioned at the top of the auger in a circumferential direction for change of its rotary pitch. With such an ice breaker, the size and quality of the flake ice pieces can be changed without replacement of the ice breaker. Although the ice breaker is useful in an auger type ice making machine the auger of which is formed with a single helical blade to succesively extrude a rod of ice through a portion of the extruding passages of the extrusion head, the size and quality of flake ice pieces may not be adjusted in an auger type ice making machine the auger of which is formed with two or more helical blades to simultaneously extrude plural rods of ice through the extruding passages of the extrusion head. If the rods of ice emerging from the extrusion head were broken by the breaker blade in a different rotary pitch, the flake ice pieces would be combined in different sizes and quality.